Government to buy more dredgers to replace foreign ones

In an effort to cut down the number of foreign dredger companies at Indian ports, the Centre will purchase at least three more dredgers within two years, said Union shipping minister G K Vasan. He was commissioning the second trailer suction hopper dredger of Dredging Corporation of India at the Chennai port on Friday. In an ambitious target, Vasan said, the dredging corporation will procure more number of dredgers to take over 80 % of the annual dredging works in Indian ports, which is now depending on foreign services. Dredgers are mostly used to maintain waterways next to the ports navigable by gathering up bottom sediments and disposing them off at different locations. Indian port channels have a depth of 13-14 metres. "Using modern dredgers, we will make it up to 18 metres to receive larger vessels," Vasan said.